It comes after the camp of Democratic rival Hillary Clinton said it would support a vote recount in Wisconsin initiated by a Green Party candidate.

Mrs Clinton won about two million votes more than Mr Trump in the popular vote.

However, Mr Trump surpassed the required 270 electoral votes to win the presidency. This was based on the state-by-state contests.

In a tweet, he wrote: “In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally.”

In his follow-up tweets, the Republican wrote: “It would have been much easier for me to win the so-called popular vote than in the Electoral College in that I would only campaign in 3 or 4 states instead of the 15 states that I visited.”

“I would have won even more easily and convincingly (but smaller states are forgotten)!”

Mr Trump also alleged “serious voter fraud” in Virginia, New Hampshire and California – states won by Mrs Clinton – accusing US media of not reporting on that issue.

The president-elect’s tweets came as his transition team faced infighting over Mitt Romney’s candidacy for secretary of state.